Highly-transitive actions of surface groups.

DOI10.1090/S0002-9939-2012-11195-5MaRDI QIDQ2845854zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Daniel Kitroser

Publication date 3 September 2013

Published in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2408

zbMATH Keywords

highly-transitive actionsinfinite symmetric groupPolish groupssurface groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Multiply transitive infinite groups (20B22) Subgroups of symmetric groups (20B35) Other groups related to topology or analysis (20F38)

Abstract: A group action is said to be highly-transitive if it is $k$-transitive for every $kge1$. The main result of this thesis is the following: Main Theorem: The fundamental group of a closed, orientable surface of genus > 1 admits a faithfull, highly-transitive action on a countably infinite set. From a topological point of view, finding a faithfull, highly-transitive action of a surface group is equivalent to finding an embedding of the surface group into $Sym(Z)$ with a dense image. In this topological setting, we use methods originally developed in [3] and [1] for densely embedding surface groups in locally compact groups.

Review text

Consider the symmetric group \(S_\infty\) (the full symmetric group on the integers \(\mathbb Z\)). There is a metric \(d\) on \(S_\infty\) which is defined for all \(\phi\neq\psi\) by: \(d(\phi,\psi):=2^{-k}\) when \(k\) is the largest integer such that \(\phi\psi^{-1}\) and \(\psi^{-1}\phi\) both fix all integers in the interval \([-k,k]\) (so \(d(\phi,\psi)=2\) when \(\phi\psi^{-1}\) or \(\psi^{-1}\phi\) is fixed point free). It is well-known that this metric is complete and generates a topology on \(S_\infty\) compatible with the group action, and that a subgroup \(G\) is dense in \(S_\infty\) under this topology if and only if \(G\) is highly transitive (that is, \(k\)-transitive for each integer \(k\geq 1\)).NEWLINENEWLINE The fundamental group of a closed orientable surface of genus \(\geq 2\) is called a surface group. The object of the current paper is to show that every surface group \(\Gamma\) is isomorphic to a highly transitive subgroup \(G\) of \(S_\infty\). Using ideas from [\textit{J. D. Dixon}, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 22, No. 3, 222-226 (1990; Zbl 0675.20003)], the author first shows that for each integer \(r\geq 1\) ``almost all \(2r\)-tuples \((\phi_1,\ldots,\phi_r,\phi_1',\ldots\phi_r')\) of elements from \(S_\infty\) generate free, highly transitive subgroups where the cyclic subgroup \(\langle[\phi_1,\phi_1']\cdots[\phi_r,\phi_r']\rangle \) is non-discrete. This is used to embed surface groups of even genus into \(S_\infty\). A similar argument is used for surface groups of odd genus.NEWLINENEWLINE Reviewer's remark: \textit{P. M. Gartside} and \textit{R. W. Knight} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 35, No. 5, 624-634 (2003; Zbl 1045.22021)] showed that many of these kinds of arguments concerning \(S_\infty\) generalize to Polish groups. It would be interesting to know whether use of Polish groups would simplify the arguments in the present paper.

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Cites work

• A PERMUTATION REPRESENTATION OF A FREE GROUP
• Compactifications and algebraic completions of limit groups
• Dense embeddings of surface groups
• Most Finitely Generated Permutation Groups are Free

Cited in

(13)

• Highly transitive actions of free products.
• Confined subgroups and high transitivity
• Maximal von Neumann subalgebras arising from maximal subgroups
• Parameter estimation of LFM signals based on scaled ambiguity function
• Generic IRS in free groups, after Bowen
• On pairs of finitely generated subgroups in free groups.
• From isolated subgroups to generic permutation representations
• Highly transitive actions of groups acting on trees.
• Highly transitive actions of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\).
• Homogeneous actions on Urysohn spaces
• Transitivity degrees of countable groups and acylindrical hyperbolicity
• Automorphisms of algebraic varieties and infinite transitivity
• Triple transitivity and non‐free actions in dimension one

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